WEST HARTFORD, Conn. — The America East Championship is supposed to be the stage upon which teams demonstrate the gains made during the season.
For the University of Maine women’s basketball team, it instead proved an example of how things don’t always come together at the right time.
The ninth-seeded Black Bears appeared disjointed and a step slow Thursday night as No. 8 University at Albany cruised to a 63-43 victory in the AE play-in game at the University of Hartford’s Chase Arena.
Coach Cindy Blodgett’s UMaine squad closes out the worst season in program history with a 5-25 record.
“I thought that we lacked a bit of focus in those areas that we knew were important to our game plan,” Blodgett said, “and that’s controlling dribble penetration, whether we’re playing man or our matchup, and also offensive rebounding.”
Albany (6-24) advances to today’s 2:15 p.m. quarterfinal against top-seeded Boston University.
The UMaine team that has showed flashes of cohesiveness and confidence in recent weeks never showed up. The Bears reverted to their turnover woes and struggled at the offensive end, combining for a lackluster all-around effort.
The Great Danes scored 27 points as a result of 19 UMaine turnovers, and they aggressively, but patiently, attacked the basket while shooting 41 percent from the field against the Bears’ 1-2-2 matchup zone and man-to-man defenses.
“[It was] just a lack of hustle, and defensively we didn’t box out and that hurt us a lot,” said senior Colleen Kilmurray. “We gave them a lot of second-chance shots and I know there were times where we couldn’t buy a basket.”
Leading 30-24, Albany manufactured a 19-0 scoring run early in the second half to turn a competitive game into a blowout. UMaine went scoreless for eight minutes, 54 seconds en route to a 49-24 deficit with 11:51 to play.
“We’re not experienced enough to really overcome when we get pushed back like that,” Blodgett said. “I hope [with] a year of maturity and experience going into next year, when that happens we will respond.”
“I think we were all really focused going into the tournament,” said Janea Aiken, who paced Albany with 18 points and four assists. “We knew we had to pretty much make a statement to beat Maine and I think we did that.”
Albany outrebounded the Bears 40-31, including 15 offensive boards that led to 14 second-chance points.
UMaine shot only 27 percent (8-for-30) from the floor in the second half and went only 6-for-15 from the foul line.
“I think we just couldn’t get a flow going offensively,” said junior guard Amanda Tewksbury, who led UMaine with 11 points and five rebounds. “It’s very unfortunate. [We had] a lot of missed layups.”
Kilmurray chipped in with nine points and five rebounds, and freshman Jasmine Rush added nine points.
Some of UMaine’s woes stemmed from foul trouble experienced by leading scorer Brittany Boser. The junior forward managed two points and no rebounds in only 12 minutes.
Charity Iromuanya netted 15 points with eight rebounds for Albany and Britney McGee scored 14 points.
The Bears trailed 30-22 at halftime after going through a rough stretch during the last seven minutes of the half.
Aiken drove the lane on her way to eight points, sparking a 15-4 Albany surge to end the half that turned the momentum in favor of the Great Danes for good.
After the Bears lead 18-15 with 7:08 left in the half, Albany eventually outscored UMaine 34-6 over the next 17 minutes.
“We rely on our defense and we played spotty,” Blodgett said. “When we would score, it was because we were playing better defense.”
Things got out of hand after intermission, after Tewksbury hit a 16-footer to get the Bears within six 38 seconds into the half.
Kate Cronin made an 8-footer from the baseline to get Albany going, then Iromuanya drained a 3-pointer and McGee swished two more over the next 2:03 to make it 41-24.
“When we do get [a run] we need to take advantage of it, big time,” Aiken said. “It doesn’t come very often and sometimes we do have trouble scoring.”
The Bears never recovered and didn’t get on the board again until Rush’s shot fortuitously glanced high off the backboard and in for a 3-pointer to snap the protracted scoring drought.
“We pressed and went back into a zone. We thought that was one of our best looks against them because they just weren’t hitting open shots,” said Albany coach Trina Patterson. “We had trouble guarding them one-on-one in the post, so we thought that our zone would neutralize that.”
UMaine executed well at both ends early but fell back into its familiar habit of turning the ball over. The Bears committed 12 turnovers in the first 20 minutes and the Great Danes capitalized to the tune of 16 points off those miscues.
The turnovers helped get Albany out and running and it was Aiken’s quickness and aggressiveness that forced the tempo. She scored 14 points to set the tone.
Albany attempted 10 more shots than UMaine, thanks in part to its tenacious rebounding. The Danes grabbed a 20-11 edge, including 10 on the offensive end.
AE hoop awards announced
Boser was the lone UMaine women’s basketball player to earn any all-conference recognition.
Boser was named to the America East All-Academic Team while boasting a 3.86 grade point average while studying chemical engineering. Her GPA was only 0.01 behind Meghan Colabella of the University of Maryland Baltimore County.
This marked the first time since UMaine has belonged to America East (formerly North Atlantic Conference) dating back to 1987 that no Black Bear was honored as an all-conference player.
To be nominated for All-Academic consideration, the student-athlete must be a starter or important reserve and participate in at least 50 percent of her team’s games. She must have a cumulative GPA of 3.30 or higher.
Boser was the Bears’ leading scorer this season, averaging 10.2 points per game, and also topped the team in rebounding (5.0 per game). Her .857 free-throw percentage ranked first in the conference and eighth in all of Division I.
Regular-season champion Boston University dominated basketball honors. Jesyka Burks-Wiley was named the player of the year, Amarachi Umez-Eronini the defensive player of the year and Kelly Greenberg the coach of the year.
Binghamton’s Andrea Holmes was chosen the rookie of the year.